The game of golf has exploded in popularity in the past 15 years, with a dramatic increase in overall use of existing golf facilities, such as public and private courses and driving ranges. As more and more individuals take up the sport of golf, there has been a corresponding saturation of existing golf courses and the resources available to teach golf to newcomers. This has had the unpleasant side effect of creating significant waiting periods for course access and time consuming use of courses by beginners.
In addition to actual play on a certified golf course, many players visit golf "driving ranges" for extra practice at their game. A golf driving range is a large open area such as a grass covered field, with a line of hitting platforms arranged along one edge of the field. These individual hitting platforms will often include a tee for hitting golf drives into the field. In this regard, the driving range is operated for profit by renting to a customer a basket of practice golf balls that are then used by the customer at the hitting platform. More particularly, the customer will tee up the practice ball and hit it into the field; this is repeated for each ball in the basket providing concentrated practice to the customer with one or more clubs that is perceived needing work.
The use of driving ranges for practice and teaching provides a useful release valve on the overcrowding of the actual golf courses. Lessons can be given at a leisurely pace without inconveniencing following groups of players. Indeed, the novice golfer can develop sufficient skill at the driving range prior to venturing out on a golf course in play.
Notwithstanding the above-noted benefits, driving ranges suffer several significant drawbacks, limiting their usefulness in several aspects. Primarily, a driving range provides no semblance of the actual golf game on a real course. Although the golf swing is unchanged, the target in a driving range is a large open field with possibly some yardage markers indicating distance from the hitting platform. The use of a golf green, i.e., the actual targets in golf, at the driving range is precluded as uneconomical or impractical for the intended purpose. Even when provided, a green is located at a significant distance from the player, inhibiting the player's ability to observe the accuracy of his shot relative to the green. Whatever the reason, the outcome is that the customer is unable to gauge the accuracy of his/her hitting as it relates to the actual game of golf during his/her session at the range.
Ingwersen, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,708, describes an indoor/outdoor recreational facility having a simulated green comprising a grid of squares, each square having a hole into which a golfed ball will roll and is mechanically retrieved. The simulated green includes apparatus for relaying to the golfer information about in which grid portion the golfed ball landed. The simulated green is essentially a flat surface (comprising the grids, each of which has a depressed center portion to collect the ball) having sloping sides.
Mason, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,212, describes a simulated gold green comprising a grid of square targets which are tiltable effect to transfer a golf ball landing on the target to a base plate for retrieval.
Bibeau, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,156,471, describes an inflatable golf target having a base portion and an upstanding target portion.
It can be seen that the art lacks designs for making a green that is easily positionable. Further, the art appears not to appreciate the need for a practice green that is able to be positioned where desired, and which can independently be altered in appearance. In essence, the art teaches fixed position targets having a predetermined configuration, which is typically merely a flat surface.
In fact, a problem apparently not appreciated by the art is that from a reasonable distance, such as 40 yards, a distance less than that from which one would typically take practice shots at the target green, the user cannot easily determine the depth of the target green. That is, when the long (hypotenuse) side of a wedge is viewed from a distance, the viewer has no visual clues as the length or inclination of the slope, and so cannot determine if the wedge is actually a wall or a very long graduated slope. The absence of such visual clues makes the benefit of such a practice green questionable.